Chinese Whispers - the funniest joke of the Edinburgh fringe?

[TruthSlave]

A joke about a chocolate bar has been named the funniest joke of the

Edinburgh fringe.

Rob Auton's winning gag was one of 20 shortlisted by a group of comedy
experts before it was put to the fans' vote.

The 30-year-old from York, who has been doing stand-up since 2008,
won 24% of the votes for his one-liner: "I heard a rumour that Cadbury
is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/edinburgh-fringe-festivals-funniest-jokes-2188704

{Wispa is the name of British confectionery}


Chinese whispers - The Phrase Finder

Meaning

Inaccurately transmitted gossip. 'Chinese whispers' refers to a
sequence of repetitions of a story, each one differing slightly from
the original, so that the final telling bears only a scant resemblance
to the original.

Origins

The expression 'Chinese whispers' is commonly used in the UK and many
other parts of the English-speaking world, although less so in the
USA. It derives from the party game in which one person whispers a
message to the person next to them and the story is then passed
progressively to several others, with inaccuracies accumulating as
the game goes on. <..> The game is played in all parts of the world
and each country has its own names for it, notably, in the USA it is
usually called 'Telephone' or 'Gossip'.

The first citation of the name in print is found in the English
newspaper The Guardian, March 1964:

The children's game of 'Chinese whispers'... in which whispered
messages were passed around the room and the version which came
back to the starting point bore no relation to the original message.


The use in a more general sense, to describe everyday misstelling of
stories, began as recently as the 1980s. It first started appearing
in print and in online postings in Usenet newsgroups in 1989. This
was probably a consequence of the use of 'Chinese Whispers' as the
name of a track on the 1985 album Stereotomy by The English rock
group The Alan Parsons Project.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/chinese-whispers.html


Question: Who in the telling of the story would have any sense of
its growing in accuracies. Each individual in the chain might have
a sense of their own contribution, and thus take from that, a
'paradigm sense' of the whole, but would this 'empathic sense' be
enough to provoke understanding?

Who except the source of the story would have a sense of the truth?

[tooly]

On Monday, August 26, 2013 6:18:12 AM UTC-4, TruthSlave wrote:
> A joke about a chocolate bar has been named the funniest joke of the Edinburgh fringe. Rob Auton's winning gag was one of 20 shortlisted by a group of comedy experts before it was put to the fans' vote. The 30-year-old from York, who has been doing stand-up since 2008, won 24% of the votes for his one-liner: "I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa." http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/edinburgh-fringe-festivals-funniest-jokes-2188704 {Wispa is the name of British confectionery} Chinese whispers - The Phrase Finder Meaning Inaccurately transmitted gossip. 'Chinese whispers' refers to a sequence of repetitions of a story, each one differing slightly from the original, so that the final telling bears only a scant resemblance to the original. Origins The expression 'Chinese whispers' is commonly used in the UK and many other parts of the English-speaking world, although less so in the USA. It derives from the party game in which one person whispers a message to the person next to them and the story is then passed progressively to several others, with inaccuracies accumulating as the game goes on. <..> The game is played in all parts of the world and each country has its own names for it, notably, in the USA it is usually called 'Telephone' or 'Gossip'. The first citation of the name in print is found in the English newspaper The Guardian, March 1964: The children's game of 'Chinese whispers'... in which whispered messages were passed around the room and the version which came back to the starting point bore no relation to the original message. The use in a more general sense, to describe everyday misstelling of stories, began as recently as the 1980s. It first started appearing in print and in online postings in Usenet newsgroups in 1989. This was probably a consequence of the use of 'Chinese Whispers' as the name of a track on the 1985 album Stereotomy by The English rock group The Alan Parsons Project. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/chinese-whispers.html Question: Who in the telling of the story would have any sense of its growing in accuracies. Each individual in the chain might have a sense of their own contribution, and thus take from that, a 'paradigm sense' of the whole, but would this 'empathic sense' be enough to provoke understanding? Who except the source of the story would have a sense of the truth?

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This closely emulates an important economic concept, which I have argued in the past might be the TRUE source of all evil...and that is IMPERFECT INFORMATION. Markets clear at equlibrium which is theoretically where demand and supply meet, and 'value' established for any commodity [it's price]. A market is said to be efficient only when that equilibrium has not 'wasted' input resources...or what is called 'dead weight loss'. But, if value is distorted in any way [and perhaps the greatest reason for such distortion is simply misinformation, either purposeful or miscalculated], resource is said to be lost due to inefficiency [either too much labor involved for the 'real' value, or costs not covered in the production etc].

In a way, 'Chinese whispers' seems appropriate in a society lost of moral giving, where DISTORTION of markets is not so much a thing of miscalculations, but actually induced by increasingly corrupted participants in such markets who 'intentionally distort information'. Case in point, 'bait and switch'...or perhaps this 'predatory lending' that helped get us into this major downturn. I think most of us have lost most TRUST in our markets in the USA, where to be truely responsible to one's self, expensive lawyers 'should' be involved in our more significant transactions.

Much of the revolt on Wall Street in 'occupy wall street' movement, was perhaps reaction to a building 'rage' many people are feeling when dealing with banks, mortgage companies, insurance companies, creditors of all kinds, and lenders in general...who often have all the 'resources' to protect themself [can afford the lawyers], while the common citizen is left in the cold having to take whatever such large entities dish out on the chin.

But it is not capitalism that on trial however, for as definitions go, as long as people are honest in their dealings with one another, and exist under a prevailing moral sense in the society itself where 'rules' are followed and not just obstacles for the clever to circumvent...capitalism works just as Adam Smith wrote, where resources are best used most efficiently and the greatest number of people attain the highest standard of living [compared to ANY other system known].

But...IMPERFECT INFORMATION has always been a big problem, and become magnified in a society lost of any moral giving as it's guidepost [for self monitor, critique through a rising conscience].

In the USA today, that conscience is a shrinking attribute [one can't know that of course, but observation allows the common sense to the dynamic]. We are in dire need of new stories to encapsulate our better human idealism that we begin again to grow conscience again.

Instead of course, 'INFORMATION' becomes even more corrupted and IMPERFECT with such distortions as the internet, social media, and electronic media in general.

So...what is the state of YOUR trust these days? Is it 'higher or lower' in general [to your fellow man] as say 10 years ago? 20 years ago? 30 years? Better get that pre-nupt if you plan to marry [get my point].

Imperfect Information...chinese whispers of the business world as passed along by those corrupted with new world pragmatism where there is NO higher order. Woe betide us all I'm afraid.

[M Purcell]

Each individual has their own interests and perceptions, however the 'empathic sense' would limit the use some jokes.